Ranking of Kings: The Treasure Chest of Courage Episode 5

The Law of the Underworld

Ranking of Kings: The Treasure Chest of Courage Episode 5 picks up where Episode 4 left off. It continues the story of Ouken’s curse of immortality. But, this time it’s from the perspective of Fren, 2nd in command of the Order of the Underworld.

As we saw in Episode 4, Fren overheard the three brothers discussing how to save Ouken. He learned of Ouken’s immortality and also of the possibility that a devil could save him. And so, being Ouken’s best friend, Fren wants to help search for this devil.

The problem is that the laws of the Underworld don’t allow for this. Apparently, monsters cannot leave and go to the surface. This may have been explained in the main Ranking of Kings anime. But, I’m not sure who it was who decided on this law.

Did the Underworld create the law? Why would they ban monsters from leaving the kingdom? To me, that sounds like surrounding kingdoms imposed the law on the Underworld. Like, the other countries wanted the Underworld to keep the monsters. You know, because racism and stuff. But, that’s the law. No monsters can leave.

Of course, this doesn’t stop Fren. Even if it means breaking the law, he’ll do whatever it takes to save Ouken. But, there is one problem. It’s not just illegal for monsters to leave the Underworld. It’s also punishable by death. And so, King Desha sends the Order of the Underworld after Fren to execute him.

Now, I’m going to skip over the rest of what happens in this story and get to the end. Fren is the one who finds that the devil has a connection to Miranjo. And he found out that Miranjo is in the Bosse Kingdom. And for that, he isn’t executed.

A White Horse in Love

The second of the three stories in this episode is all about Despa’s noble steed, Whiteking. It really doesn’t add all that much, though. And, that’s a good thing. I didn’t need half of the episode to be about Whiteking. About a quarter was enough.

So, as we know from the main series, Whiteking gained a lot of weight. She used to be Despa’s prized horse. But, after he left the castle, Despa left her in the care of the Captain of the Order. And the Captain didn’t exactly take care of her.

In fact, he forgot about her. And left to her own devices, Whiteking spent all her time eating grass and gaining weight. So, once the Captain remembers her, he attempts to get her on a diet.

First, he tries limiting the amount she ate by locking her in a cage. But, she easily breaks free and goes back to eating as much as she wants. Then, he tries to get her to exercise by bribing her with food. This also doesn’t work. But, he finally figures out a way to motivate her to lose weight.

You see, Whiteking likes another horse who looks a lot like Sasuke. So, the Captain tells her that this male horse is probably only interested in horses who aren’t obese. And that’s enough to get Whiteking to start exercising.

Unfortunately for Whiteking, all her effort was for nothing. She did end up losing the weight, which was surprising. But, it turns out the Sasuke horse already has a wife and child. So, in her depression, Whiteking went back to her old ways of eating to cope with her emotions. And that’s where the main story picks up from.

The Gentle Soldier, Hokuro

At the end of Episode 5, we get Hokuro’s backstory. Hokuro is the knight who went with Bojji and Domas on their adventure. And while his backstory wasn’t all that interesting, I did enjoy it. Though, that could be because it followed the story about the fat horse.

Hokuro isn’t one of my favorite characters, by any means. But, in this episode, we got to see how much he cares about Bojji. In fact, he specifically joined the knights because he wanted to serve Bojji when he became the next king.

Simply wanting to serve Bojji isn’t enough, though. So, Hokuro put in the necessary work. He actually taught himself sign language so that he could communicate with Bojji. Though, he never actually communicated with him until the beginning of their journey. However, this effort is what made all the difference, in the end.

When Bojji’s journey was announced, only one knight volunteered to go with him: Hokuro. And yet, that wasn’t enough for him to be selected for the job. He had to prove his worth by showing Domas that he’s capable of protecting Bojji. And, Hokuro failed to do this.

But, he then started showing off his ability to use sign language. And this is what earned him his spot on the journey with Bojji. After seeing that Hokuro learned sign language for Bojji, Queen Hiling selected him. Anyone who’s willing to learn sign language for Bojji must truly care about him.

And sure, this should have been Hokuro’s time to shine. But, Queen Hiling stole the spotlight from him in my mind. Once again, she showed me why she’s my favorite character. She recognized how important it was for Bojji to have someone he could communicate with. That’s why she allowed Hokuro to go.

Conclusion

What do you think of Ranking of Kings: The Treasure Chest of Courage Episode 5? Why do you think monsters aren’t allowed to leave the Underworld? Could you have done without the Whiteking story in this episode? And, did Hokuro’s backstory make you like him more? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 6 is available now.